Football players and other athletes who use helmets sometimes attach a visor or other accessory to the helmet. Visors are typically attached to the face mask of the helmet. The visor serves as a shield to block foreign objects from passing through the face mask and injuring the athlete. For example, the visor prevents competitor hands and other body parts from passing through the face mask and poking the athlete's eyes or nose. In addition to serving as a shield, the visor may also be tinted to block sunlight from the athlete's eyes. Both tinted and clear visors may comprise a UV resistant material that serves to block harmful UV rays from the athlete's eyes.
Visors are typically secured to the helmet using two clips positioned on opposite sides of the face mask. In order to mount the visor, a right side clip with two parallel arms is pressed onto a bar on the right side of the helmet until a channel in the clip fully engages the bar. A symmetric left side clip is then placed on a bar on the left side of the helmet. The visor is then positioned between the face mask and the helmet. The clips are then aligned with opposing holes in the visor. A screw is passed through each hole and clip combination and into a threaded bushing and washer seated on the outside of the clip. When the screw is tightened, the visor and clip are pinned in place upon the face mask, thus securing the face mask to the helmet. In order to remove the visor from the helmet, a screwdriver must first be located, and then the screw must be completely removed from the clip. Only after the screw is removed can the visor be released from the clip. This process of obtaining a screwdriver and unscrewing the screw from the clip is not only time consuming, but since the clip arrangement includes numerous parts, including the screw and other small parts, these parts may be easily lost when the screw is removed from the clip. Furthermore, because numerous parts and tools are required, installing and removing conventional clips is generally awkward and frustrating. Additionally, the parallel arms of conventional clips may pinch the user's fingers when the clips are slid over the bars of the face mask.
There are several conditions where a visor may need to be quickly and easily removed from the athlete's helmet during a game (or during practice). As a first example, if light conditions change during a game, the athlete may wish to switch from a clear visor to a tinted visor or vice-versa. Second, if weather conditions change during a game and cause the athlete's visor to fog-up or accumulate rain droplets, the athlete's vision may be impaired and the athlete may wish to completely remove the visor. Third, if the athlete is injured on the field, it may be necessary to remove the visor to access the athlete's face. In these injury situations, the athlete's head may need to be immobilized such that the visor must be removed from the player without removing the helmet.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a mounting arrangement for securing a visor to a helmet that allows the visor to be quickly and easily removed from the helmet without the need for tools. It would also be advantageous if the mounting arrangement allowed the visor to be easily removed from the helmet without the need to remove the helmet from the athlete's head. Furthermore, it would be advantageous if the mechanism for securing the visor to the helmet included a relatively small number of parts compared to conventional mounting arrangements, allowing the parts of the mounting arrangement to be easily kept together and in order. It would also be advantageous if the mounting arrangement was universal such that it could be used with numerous cage sizes and could be applied to either side of a face mask.